The present disclosure relates to methods and systems for tracking compliance of personal protection (PP) articles for use in working environments.
Maintaining the safety and health of workers is a major concern across many industries. Various rules and regulations have been developed to aid in addressing this concern, which provide sets of requirements to ensure proper administration of personnel health and safety procedures. To help in maintaining worker safety and health, some individuals may be required to don, wear, carry, or otherwise use PPE articles, if the individuals enter or remain in work environments that have hazardous or potentially hazardous conditions. Known types of the PPE articles include, without limitation, respiratory protection article (RPE), e.g., for normal condition use or emergency response, protective eyewear, such as visors, goggles, filters or shields, protective headwear, such as hard hats, hoods or helmets, hearing protection, protective shoes, protective gloves, other protective clothing, such as coveralls and aprons, protective articles, such as sensors, safety tools, detectors, global positioning devices, mining cap lamps and any other suitable gear.
For example, personnel in the nuclear industry may be required to wear radiation protective clothing and personal dosimeter devices. Law enforcement personnel are sometimes required to wear protective vests and helmets. There are numerous situations in the medical field in which healthcare workers must wear protective gowns, masks, face shields, gloves, etc. Workers in the food service industry are often required to wear hair netting, gloves, masks, etc. For example, there are also many industrial manufacturing scenarios in which personnel are required to wear protective or other specially designed articles in order to ensure a “clean” environment. For example, personnel in the micro-electronics manufacturing industry, biotech industry, laboratory/testing industry, are required to wear PPE articles not only to ensure their own safety, but to protect the article and devices which they assemble or perform various procedures with. There are also many industrial manufacturing scenarios in which personnel working in mines, oil refineries, metal grinding facilities, smelting facilities, industrial painting operations or pharmaceutical factories may be required to wear respiratory protection article (RPE).
There are many different kinds of RPE's utilized to prevent or reduce inhalation of hazardous or toxic materials. The RPE's remove specific air contaminants by passing ambient air through their air-purifying element. Their proper use is contingent upon the RPE's being replaced, serviced, maintained, cleaned, or otherwise processed before they fail or that they are properly used in the working environment by appropriate personnel.
Importantly, facilities in which workers wear PPE article are often required to keep detailed records regarding the PPE article as well as the individuals wearing the PPE article. Some such records may include, among other factors, information regarding use of the PPE articles, maintenance of the PPE articles, and training of the workers. In addition, records of certain mandatory regulations and compulsory audit histories must be kept for auditing purposes. For example, in some cases, RPE's require maintenance to be carried out by properly trained personnel or must be used at specific concentration levels.
Compiling records pertaining to compliance with the regulations is relatively laborious and time consuming. Currently, recordkeeping and auditing regarding the use of the PPE articles and components are being performed manually or semi-automatically by safety personnel. The making and keeping of extensive records that contain all of the above-referenced information present a substantial administrative task.
Despite the extensive records required to be kept, adherence to predetermined criteria is typically the responsibility of the wearer. Thus, compliance with the predetermined criteria may become an issue in work environments involving relatively large number of workers and/or respirators because of the relative difficulty in tracking worker habits and diligence. Clearly, when predetermined criteria are not adhered to, workers are at a higher risk of chemical exposure upon breakthrough of hazardous materials. Additionally, concentration levels of hazardous materials used in the reporting process are not necessarily static and may change over time. For example, concentration levels may spike in a particular location. Alternatively, concentration levels may become lower than originally sensed.
Because the concentration levels may subsequently change, the articles may not satisfy the predetermined criteria. For example, subsequently higher concentration levels may result in unsafe exposure conditions since compliance values are based on relatively safer concentration levels. Similarly, lower concentration levels may potentially cause more frequent and thus relatively more expensive changes in article that are actually necessary.
Thus, needs exist for methods and systems for enabling auditing and reporting on conditions, and in some cases, on-going reporting on real-time safety compliance conditions experienced by personal protection articles relative to, for example, occupational health and safety regulations, such as government regulations, insurance requirements as well as other industrial requirements. Needs also exist for methods and systems enabling periodic reporting for purposes of understanding, identifying, and remediating workplace problems. Needs also exist for methods and systems enabling compliance with applicable forms required by various reporting entities. There is also a need for methods and systems that enable being able to quickly and simply provide the records needed for reporting on compliance. There is a need for methods and systems that enable collecting data for compliance reports which reduce the cost and time it takes to meet regulations.